Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Ann Rule's shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood. "Vivid....Extraordinary...a page-turner."-- New York Times Book Review "Superb...<a> riveting detective story."-- Indianapolis Star "A harrowing pathological portrait....A work of resonance and revelation with breath-stopping tension to the... (more)

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

by William M. Bass

Dr. Bill Bass, one of the world's leading forensic anthropologists, gained international attention when he built a forensic lab like no other: The Body Farm. Now, this master scientist unlocks the gates of his lab to reveal his most intriguing cases-and to revisit the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, fifty years after the fact.

The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

by Marie Gottschalk

Over the last three decades the United States has built a carceral state that is unprecedented among Western countries and in US history. Nearly one in 50 people, excluding children and the elderly, is incarcerated today, a rate unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. What are some of the main political forces that explain this unprecedented reliance on mass imprisonment? Throughout American history, crime and... (more)

Street Gang Patterns and Policies (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

Street Gang Patterns and Policies (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

by Malcolm W. Klein

Street Gang Patterns and Policies provides a crucial update and critical examination of knowledge about gangs and major gang control programs across the nation. Malcolm Klein and Cheryl Maxson here focus on gang proliferation, migration, and crime patterns, and highlight known risk factors that lead to youths joining gangs and to gang formation within communities. Dispelling long-standing assumptions that the... (more)

What Works in Corrections: Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders and Deliquents (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

What Works in Corrections: Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders and Deliquents (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

by Doris L. MacKenzie

What Works in Corrections examines the impact of correctional interventions, management policies, treatment and rehabilitation programs on the recidivism of offenders and delinquents. The book reviews different strategies for reducing recidivism and describes how the evidence for effectiveness is assessed. Thousands of studies were examined in order to identify those of sufficient scientific rigor to enable... (more)

Technology and Law Enforcement: From Gumshoe to Gamma Rays

Technology and Law Enforcement: From Gumshoe to Gamma Rays

by Robert L. Snow

Although for much of the mid-20th century police departments across the U.S. had been reluctant to embrace new technology, depending instead on traditional police techniques, detectives in Los Angeles finally departed from this practice when they found themselves stymied in their attempts to solve the infamous Night Stalker serial murder case. This murderer and rapist had gone on a deadly rampage during the spring... (more)

Dead Men Do Tell Tales

by William R. Maples

From a skeleton, a skull, a mere fragment of burnt thighbone, Dr. William Maples can deduce the age, gender, and ethnicity of a murder victim, the manner in which the person was dispatched, and, ultimately, the identity of the killer. In Dead Men Do Tell Tales , Dr. Maples revisits his strangest, most interesting, and most horrific investigations, from the baffling cases of conquistador Francisco Pizarro and... (more)

NO MATTER HOW LOUD I SHOUT : A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court

NO MATTER HOW LOUD I SHOUT : A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court

by Edward Humes

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Hume's offers this unforgettable odyssey through the corridors of the United States juvenile court system--the one place intended to save our children, though it seldom does. "Passionate. . . . A sad, maddening, brilliant book."--The Washington Post.

Life Sentence

by Charles W. Colson

The best-seller Born Again revealed how God transformed Charles Colsons life through the Watergate tragedy. Life Sentence tells how Colson put his newfound faith into practice. First published in 1979, this book went through twenty-two hardcover and trade paperback printings and is now available for the first time in a mass-market size.

Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes

Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes

by John E. Douglas

This landmark book classifies the three major felonies--murder, arson, and sexual assault--based upon the motivation of the offender, standardizing in one place, for the first time, the language and terminology used throughout the criminal justice system. A decade in development, this work forms the basis of contemporary investigative "profiling," the highly acclaimed strategy enabling law enforcement personnel to... (more)

Life Without Parole: Living in Prison Today

Life Without Parole: Living in Prison Today

by Victor Hassine

In 1981 law-school graduate Victor Hassine was sentenced to prison for life without parole for a capital offense. His Third Edition of LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE is an insightful look at conditions of confinement and prison life in America today, taking the reader on a "guided tour" of the prison experience. In powerful and poignant prose, Hassine conveys the changes in prison life that have come about as a result of the... (more)

American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Incarceration

American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Incarceration

by Sasha Abramsky

In this dramatic exposé of U.S. penitentiaries and the communities around them, Sasha Abramsky finds that prisons have dumped their age-old goal of rehabilitation, often for political reasons. The new “ideal,” unknown to most Americans, is a punitive mandate marked by a drive toward vengeance. Surveying this state of affairs—life sentences for nonviolent crimes, appalling conditions, the growth of private... (more)

Every Contact Leaves a Trace: Crime Scene Experts Talk About Their Work from Discovery Through Verdict

Every Contact Leaves a Trace: Crime Scene Experts Talk About Their Work from Discovery Through Verdict

by Connie Fletcher

Real crime scene investigation is vastly more complicated, arduous, bizarre, and fascinating than TV’s streamlined versions. Most people who work actual investigations will tell you that the science never lies -- but people can. They may also contaminate evidence, or not know what to look for in crime scenes that typically are far more chaotic and confusing, whether inside or outside, than on TV. Forensic... (more)

Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

by Derrick A. Bell

Imagine America on the first day of the 21st century. At the break of dawn, a thousand space ships descend from the sky, landing on the shores of the East Coast, bearing treasures of gold, safe nuclear power and detoxifying agents that could pay all debts and save the earth's environment. In exchange for these goods, guaranteed to rescue America from the excesses of its past, the Space Traders want just one thing... (more)

Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

by Jonathan Simon

Across America today gated communities sprawl out from urban centers, employers enforce mandatory drug testing, and schools screen students with metal detectors. Social problems ranging from welfare dependency to educational inequality have been reconceptualized as crimes, with an attendant focus on assigning fault and imposing consequences. Even before the recent terrorist attacks, non-citizen residents had... (more)

Crime and Justice, Volume 33: Crime and Punishment in Western Countries, 1980-1999 (Crime and Justice: a Review of Research)

Crime and Justice, Volume 33: Crime and Punishment in Western Countries, 1980-1999 (Crime and Justice: a Review of Research)

The eight essays in this volume provide comprehensive, up-to-date summaries of crossnational crime trends in Australia, Canada, England, Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. This book is an essential resource for sociologists, psychologists, criminal lawyers, justice scholars, and political scientists who seek an interdisciplinary approach to crime, its causes, and its... (more)

Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk

Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk

by Avelardo Valdez

This book focuses on the vulnerability of beyond-risk young females connected to male street-based youth gangs involved in violence, drug use, crime and sexual behavior. Special attention is given to partner violence experienced by these girls embedded in Mexican American communities with persistent poverty and weak community institutions. Unlike other studies on gang girls, this book describes the relationships... (more)

WRITING FOR THEIR LIVES: Death Row USA

Going well beyond graphic descriptions of death row’s madness and suicide-inducing realities, Writing for Their Lives offers powerful, compassionate, and harrowing accounts of prisoners rediscovering the value of life from within the brutality and boredom of the row. Editor Marie Mulvey-Roberts brings together the writings of prisoners (many of whom are also prize-winning authors) and the words of those who work... (more)

Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares (Globalization (Lanham, MD.).)

Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares (Globalization (Lanham, MD.).)

by Jamal R. Nassar

Globalization and terrorism are both charged concepts; people use the terms loosely without regard for exactitude, often to further political ends. This book carefully defines these concepts, puts them in historical as well as political context, and amplifies the basics with an exploration of the way in which the dreams inspired by globalization can translate all too easily into the nightmare of terrorism. Visit... (more)

Don't Just Sit There: A True Account of a Frightening Experience and a Self Help Book for Women

Don't Just Sit There: A True Account of a Frightening Experience and a Self Help Book for Women

by L. Wilson

A true story about how one woman made sure that justice was served to the man that assaulted her.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: criminal justice

A True Story of Passion and Murder

by Ann Rule